The Bucks Just Put Small Market Teams On Notice

The Bucks winning an NBA title is one of the great stories of the past… thirty years? After all, it’s been two decades since an NBA Finals did not feature either Lebron, Kobe, KD or Steph. 

The Milwaukee Bucks just put the rest of the league on blast and here’s why:

And you thought the Dame Lillard saga was bad before? Now that Giannis won a ring because his organization believed in him enough to bring in the right pieces, holy shit it’s going to get rough in Portland in the coming year. How is Neil Olshey going to try and spin this? Portland might not be a great free agent destination but it sure as hell is a better city to live in than Milwaukee. Gonna need to do something if you’re Portland. 

And Denver.

And Utah.

And New Orleans.

And every other small market team with a great player who can’t get over the hump. 

Small market teams have been put on notice: you CAN win a title in a small market, and you can do it without building a Superteam. 

If you happen to draft a generational player like Giannis, Jokic, Dame or Zion, you need to do everything you can to surround them with the pieces that allow them to contend for a title. Not trade and draft on the margins like Portland has, but actually put your balls on the table and make moves like Milwaukee did in trading for and extending Jrue Holiday and then getting more role players like Bobby Portis and P.J. Tucker at the trade deadline. 

People were SUPER sus on whether trading for Jrue was worth it. Alert Alert… it was.

The Bucks took advantage of a bizarre COVID season and a shit load of star injuries. They were literally an inch from being eliminated by KD and the Nets. Yet they persevered, got more and more resilient as time went on, and put the ball in the hands of Giannis when in doubt, and he did not disappoint. But even Giannis admits he couldn’t do it alone. 

So the Bucks are the new model in the era of Super Teams. You find a generational talent? Build around him, and take chances even if they might not pan out, because no one knows when you’ll be there ever again.